The title of “Most Controversial Denver offensive Lineman” is a constant battle between Ben Powers and center Luke Wattenberg, and there is a clear winner in my book. It’s been quite a while since the Broncos have had a center they could truly rely on week-to-week, and they had that for one season in Lloyd Cushenberry III, but that’s about it. And over the last two years there’s been a position battle between Wattenberg and Alex Forsyth (maybe not actually, but us the fans have seemingly thought so) and Wattenberg has won them both.
This must mean that the coaching staff thinks Wattenberg is the best center on the roster. But does that mean he’s actually good?
We’ll be taking a look at how Wattenberg did against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 3 of the season. I know what I saw online, in our MHR chats, and how I felt after watching the game live. Spoiler alert: I did not feel good about his performance. Let’s see if the film agrees.
Luke Wattenberg was on the field for all 47 offensive snaps. The Denver Broncos had 14 designed run plays and 33 designed pass plays.
Wattenberg gave up one TFL, four pressures, and one QB hit.
Wattenberg had five “Bad” blocks, nine “Meh” blocks, nine “Alright” blocks, 28 “Good” blocks, and zero “Great” blocks. This was good enough for 37.25 points out of a possible 47, or 79.3%.
Wattenberg’s run blocking grade was 76.8% (10.75 points) and his pass blocking grade was 80.3% (26.5 points).
The worst parts of Wattenberg’s play haunted the Broncos in this one. He absolutely struggles against any sort of stunt by the defense. And in the second half the Chargers really started to dial those up, and that’s when Wattenberg really faltered. It just feels like he doesn’t have the instincts to pick those up. The rule is when someone goes away from you, expect someone to replace them. Wattenberg struggles to snap his head and expect the pressure coming behind the slant. There was even one play late where the slanting DT totally leveled him.
Most of his play though is just mediocre. His pass blocking when not facing a stunt is just decent. His run blocking, for the most part, is just decent. His decision making as a center is just decent. He’s not going to dig out a DT playing a 0 or 2i technique and he hardly get’s good vertical displacement on run blocks.
To his credit though, his game is not all bad. I was pleasantly surprised by his double team blocks on Sunday, particularly the ones on Outside Zone plays. He had a handful of plays where he showed really great technique on reaching a DT from the backside and bumping the guard off to the linebacker. This is definitely a part of his game that is new, and let’s give him some credit. And it wouldn’t be a offensive line article of mine where I didn’t give credit to offensive line coach Zach Strief for doing such a good job developing these guys.
Outside Zone – Good block
Now, Mike McGlinchey sort of ruins this block/ play be getting stalemated at the point of attack and causes Quinn Meinerz, and subsequently Wattenberg, to trip. But besides that, Wattenberg does a great job of working the backside of this double team and takes over the block, and theoretically bumps Meinerz off to pick up the backer.
The get off, footwork, and body positioning here is all textbook. And this is not the only example of this by Wattenberg this game. He does this a couple of other times as well.
Pass protection – Bad block
Here is the play I alluded to earlier when I said Wattenberg got leveled on a stunt in pass protection.
And that was something that was completely preventable. When someone starts to loop over the top, expect a slant from the side he’s looping to. As soon as Wattenberg saw this loop, he should’ve snapped his head to his left and expected that slanting DT. At least if he got eyes on him then he would’ve stood a chance, and likely wouldn’t have given up a QB hit.
I can’t lie, it sucks to have the defense run a stunt like this on Outside Zone. As an offensive lineman you’re locked in on hitting your playside gap and getting out to the linebacker, especially if you’re uncovered, so your eyes are locked to the outside. And that’s exactly where Wattenberg’s eyes are. They’re all the way to the left.
And even if the Chargers aren’t running an interior stunt, Wattenberg still needs to at least take a chunk out of that slanting DT to help out Meinerz. Instead he just bypasses him, ends up not blocking anyone, and Dobbins is getting blown up in the backfield. Wattenberg is lacking a general feel/ instinct for these kind of things, and this play makes that very evident.
Pass protection – Good block
Let’s close out the review with a positive, and proof that Wattenberg does have the ability to pick up a stunt.
He’s aided by Powers doing a great job passing this off, but Wattenberg shows poise and good technique. He sits at hip-level of his guards (a great starting point when it comes to picking up stunts easier), and when the DT loops, he is in good position to pick up the slanter.
This is a relatively easy stunt to pick up, but at least Wattenberg was able to do a good job with this one.
Luke Wattenberg has the chance/ ability to be good. He needs to work on stunt pick ups and getting better leverage on his double teams, when they need to work them vertically on Inside Zones, but I don’t think he’ll ever be anything more than just good.
I think the Broncos need to take a long look at this position this offseason. There are a handful of upcoming free agents that would be an improvement, or they can look to the draft.
And for what it’s worth, Alex Forsyth has shown that he is better than Wattenberg when it comes to picking up stunts in pass protection.